Conventional motorcycle tires utilize very wide treads which in transverse cross-section are sharply curved to provide good contact with the road surface when the motorcycle is steeply banked in cornering. Maintaining a consistent ground contact area or ‘tire footprint’ under all conditions is a major challenge in determining general vehicle handling.
Conventional radial motorcycle race tires have short sidewalls which extend to the tread edges radially and axially outwardly from the tires beads. The beads provide engagement to the wheelrim on tapered bead seats. The sidewalls are reinforced by radial carcass plies which, when tensioned by inflation pressure, act together with sidewall geometry to locate the curved tread regions to withstand cornering forces.
The sharply curved tread region of a motorcycle tire may be reinforced by a breaker to give the required structural rigidity and to allow for banking over of the motorcycle when cornering while still allowing sufficient flexibility for localized tread flattening in the ground contact patch for road grip. A conventional tread may further have three separate compound zones, each of which has full tread thickness.
It therefore an object of the present invention is to improve the properties of such motorcycle tires.